The purpose of this sermon was to challenge the
people to continually seek a higher rung on the ladder of Christian maturity,
and to counter the pervasive problem of "cheap grace".

When Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to go
her way and sin no more (John 8:11), He was telling her that she could
overcome her sin nature. She had the God given power to choose between good
and evil. Cheap grace is to continue to have one adulterous affair after
another and keep asking Jesus to forgive us without even trying to change our
ways.

My example of unhealthful eating and smoking
leading to illness is another example in a more practical sense. Neither may
be classified as a sin, except maybe in the sense of destroying oneself as a
temple of the Holy Spirit. But just as with sin, we can choose.

There is no question that Jesus died for our sins,
but He also desired us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect
(Matthew 5:48).